Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is clear that interest rates in this State are out of sync with what they should be. The Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan, suggested that at the finance committee meeting last week, and also that he intends to do nothing about it. The Minister's response is that the Government is at arm's length from this and that it is due to commercial decisions by the banks. It is interesting that when the former Minister of State leaves these shores to take up residence in Brussels he has no problem returning here and telling us that the rates are a disgrace compared with the rates in other banks in continental Europe. He continues to lash out at the banks he oversaw up to a couple of months ago. Why can the Minister not have the courage of his convictions and state, as he did in the past, that variable interest rates are out of sync with what is happening across the water and that the variable interest rates in the State-controlled banks, at least, should come down? He should at least say that.

The Minister does not have to introduce legislation, as the Taoiseach threatened at one stage, to provide the Central Bank with this power. He should be able to stand up on behalf of the people who put him in this position and say the rates are out of sync.

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